Director's Cut Blog with Frank Macek

Michael Jackson's father, Joe, marked the one year anniversary of his son's death in Cleveland on Friday. While here, he stopped by the Channel 3 News studios to discuss his feelings on Michael and his family's loss. Our flipcam was in the room during his interview.

CLEVELAND - WKYC-TV won top honors for best evening newscast at the 41st Annual Emmy® Awards, Lower Great Lakes Chapter. The station garnered five Emmys and 19 nominations. The Emmy® is an award that recognizes excellence in media production for broadcast and multiple media platforms. It is the highest award given in television. The awards recognize outstanding achievement by individuals and programs broadcast throughout the 2009 calendar year. WKYC Winners include: Channel 3 News at 6, 11/3/09 Category: Newscast - Evening - Market 1-20 Carrie Young - Producer Project AED Category: Continuing Coverage Romona Robinson - Anchor Eric Mansfield - Anchor/Reporter Monica Robins - Anchor/Reporter Rita Andolsen - News Director Danielle Fink - Assignment Manager Kim Wendel - Web Reporter Hardball Cash Category: Business/Consumer Tom Meyer - Investigative Reporter Sarah Montgomery - Editor To the Moon: Ohio's Journey Category: Documentary Jeff Reidel - Producer/Wr...

Michael Greene (left) & Dick Russ (right) CLEVELAND - Veteran reporter Dick Russ (pictured right) and photojournalist Michael Greene (pictured left) won top honors at the 2010 Cleveland Press Club 2010 Excellence in Journalism Awards. Russ, already a Press Club Hall of Fame Inductee, and Greene won first place in the television general news category for their coverage of accused Nazi John Demjanjuk's forcible removal from his home and subsequent deportation. Former WKYC reporter Mike O'Mara and Assignment Manager Danielle Fink took second place honors in the television spot news category for their coverage of the West 89th St. multiple murders. The 32nd annual event was held at the Marriott Downtown at Key Center in Cleveland. Entries were received from a variety of daily and non-daily newspapers, radio and television stations, internet sites, and trade and business publications from across Ohio. Competition categories included: daily newspaper, non-daily newspa...

You just never know who might stop by the WKYC Digital Broadcast Center. Sportscaster, actress, host and model Lisa Guerrero was in town and popped in to have a quick chat with WKYC Morning Anchor Mark Nolan. We can't tell you just why, yet - but could something be brewing in Lisa's future? Click on the video to watch what she had to say.

Editor's Note: The following article is interesting about the introduction of 3DTV broadcasts that debuted last Friday with ESPN's coverage of World Cup in South Africa. I thought you might enjoy getting some first thoughts from our partners at USA Today - Frank --- Special to the Director's Cut Bog By Edward C. Baig, USA Today Three-dimensional TV is a kick. At least, I think so after watching World Cup soccer in 3D. I felt like I was inside the Durban soccer stadium, where Germany routed Australia, though South Africa is halfway around the world from ESPN's Bristol, Conn., headquarters, where I watched on an off-the-shelf 46-inch Samsung LED 3D TV. Especially on close-ups and replays, the 3D broadcast added depth and perspective that's impossible to duplicate on the two-dimensional TVs we've watched for years, even high definition. But obstacles remain before 3D goes primetime in homes, starting with the fact that new 3D TVs aren't cheap. The Sam...

The old WKYC analog antenna By Frank Macek Construction crews were busy at the WKYC Transmitter site in Parma on Sunday as they lowered the old Channel 3 antenna to the ground. The antenna provided our analog and original digital signal until the switch to all digital television one year ago on June 12th, 2009. A new tower was built last year to accomodate our move to digital channel 17 (from channel 2) and to also support WVIZ's new digital antenna. Analog Channel 3 was the official "night light" station in the Cleveland market and remained on the air broadcasting information about the switch until June 20th when the signal was turned off permenantly. Ham operators should finally be able to rest comfortably knowing that the interference caused by our signal on some of their amateur radio ham bands at 6 meters will not be returning according to WKYC Transmitter Engineer Dave Kushman. Dave tells the Director's Cut Blog that some wer...

Amanda Barren WKYC News Director Rita Andolsen announced Friday that Amanda Barren will be joining the Channel 3 News team as a multi-media journalist (MMJ). Amanda comes to WKYC from WSAZ-TV in Charleston/Huntington, West Virginia, where she has worked since January of 2006 as a reporter, anchor and producer for the NBC affiliate. Before that, she was an anchor, reporter and producer at WJET-TV in Erie, Pennsylvania; WTAP-TV in Parkersburg, West Virginia; and WOUB-TV/Radio in Athens, Ohio. Amanda is no stranger to Ohio. She grew up Bainbridge, just east of Cleveland, in northeast Ohio. She also attended Ohio University in Athens and received her Bachelor of Science degree from the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism in June 2002. She tells the Director's Cut Blog, "I am truly excited to come home and do the job that I love, at the station I grew up watching! Getting back to Cleveland has always been my goal, and now it’s my reality. I look forward to tellin...

Here's another one of those fun, behind the scenes adventures of television news people in case you haven't seen it. NBC's Flint, Michigan affiliate WEYI had an unexpected guest drop by the set of their live newscast this morning. The morning show team heard some noise coming from behind the set and quickly found the source was "Rusty" the raccoon. News anchor Elizabeth McFarland watched on as weatherman Brian Hughes, wearing oven mitts borrowed from a cooking segment, shooed Rusty away. At first the raccoon actually went further into the building, but after about 20 minutes, Rusty finally made it out safely. ">

On Monday, June 14th, WKYC will air a "Moms Like Me" special broadcast at 5 pm in place of Dr. Phil - a show dedicated to topics from our highly popular website cleveland.momslikeme.com , just for northeast Ohio moms. Hosted by Channel 3 News anchor Romona Robinson, the show will feature reports from Monica Robins, Kim Wheeler, Maureen Kyle, Dick Russ and "Moms Like Me" Site Manager Jacquie Chakirelis talking about everything from sunscreen to coupons, things to do with the kids through the summer months, how to avoid work at home scams and where the best consignment stores are to shop. Plus, Romona sits down for a one-on-one interview with sassy WZAK/93.1 DJ Kym Sellers, and her very private struggle with multiple sclerosis. The disease hasn't stopped Kym although she can no longer walk, but she continues her very busy schedule. WKYC Meteorologist Betsy Kling will talk about her blog on "Moms Like Me", her daughter Josie, and how to...

Congratulations to WKYC's Tom Meyer, The Investigator , who was honored with two #1 finishes in the Ohio Associated Press Broadcaster's contest for Best Investigative Reporting and Best Continuing Coverage for 2009. Tom's 1st place entries include: Best Investigative Reporting for "Pills without Penalties" - This was a 2-part investigation into the Ohio Pharmacy board and how it fails to discipline pharmacists, even if those mistakes prove to be deadly. Best Continuing Coverage for 28 stories on Cuyahoga County Corruption - Tom's coverage included 14 stories that were exclusive stories and the result of our own investigations.

By Frank Macek As you have likely read, the push is on by the major broadcasting groups to get the mobile digital television business up and running as quickly as possible. For companies like Gannett, WKYC's parent, the push is a very important one to help ensure television and electronic media's long term viability in whatever form it can be delivered. This not only includes traditional forms of content being available over the air, on cable, satellite, in newspapers on on the internet, but also having material available on mobile devices for consumers to take anywhere. In April of this year, 12 major TV station groups created the Mobile Content Venture (MCV) to develop a plan that is sustainable and profitable for a new national mobile content service by utilizing existing broadcast spectrum to enable member companies to deliver content to mobile devices, including live and on-demand video, local and national news from print and ...

The Old Brooklyn Cub Scout Troop 45 visited the Channel 3 studios on Wednesday evening as they fulfilled their requirements to get a merit badge. Your Director's Cut Blogger was happy to give them a tour of the station, as they enjoyed a behind the scenes look and watched Channel 3 News at 7 pm from the control room. Betsy Kling grabbed the flipcam as we had a little fun. If you are part of a group who would like a tour of Channel 3, you can contact me at fmacek@wkyc.com Individuals are welcomed also, as time allows. Click on the video to watch what Betsy shot: